The New Zealand government is currently working on a plan to develop a single electronic health record for all of its citizens, and while it is unlikely the country will follow Australia's lead in building one from the ground up, Wellington could do worse than looking at its own doorstep for a clue on how to build a functioning EHR without going to massive expense.

In the South Island, the Canterbury District Health Board (DHB) has in the last five years built just such an EHR from disparate sources, bringing primary care information together with secondary care and soon to allow patients to see their records through a patient portal. It is also now working on a unified medications list that is updated in real time, so paraphrasing another famous Kiwi export, there will be one list to rule them all.